As in The Tempest, the action of Jack Hodgins' second novel originates in a giant wave, which shipwrecks characters on an island of romance and is followed by a series of magical transformations. The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne takes place on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island in the flooded and rain-drenched pulp town of Port Annie—"the end of the world" …, that is, "the edge of nothingness" … as it is perceived by Joseph Bourne in a mood of despair and disbelief, but also "the brink of eternity" … when seen from a visionary perspective. Nearly all of Port Annie's inhabitants have come from somewhere else which they would prefer to forget and, like the characters in Hodgins' first novel, all are still restlessly searching for an ideal which they have not attained, a new Eden or utopia, something which is different for every individual but nevertheless the same...